For Saima Chowdhury, cosplay is both art and self-expression. “It’s all about transforming yourself into a different character!” she tells The Huffington Post. “There’s no rules, it’s all about having fun and showing your interpretation of the character you love!”
Her imaginative interpretations of popular characters have garnered her a lot of fame. But Chowdhury also has her own podcast and does makeup tutorials and fashion blogs.
Saima Chowdhury deftly navigates the vlogging and cosplay sphere
“I started vlogging when I was in secondary school, when YouTube had just started taking off,” Chowdhury told Birmingham Live. Cosplay is defined as “a performance art in which the participants dress in costumes and make-up, representing characters from anime, video games, television and film.” Chowdhury started doing cosplay out of her interest in anime, and sees every costume as a “creative challenge.”
“[My subscribers] seemed to think it was pretty cool to see a hijabi cosplayer,” says Chowdhury. “It can be seen a bit of a cultural barrier but the way of getting past that is by not caring about what other people think as much.”
- Chowdhury doesn’t do just cosplay! On her channel @saimasmileslike, she does challenges and educational videos, such as this Bengali cooking challenge.
Chowdhury also does makeup tutorials and cosplay looks.
Saima Chowdhury features friends and family in her work
Chowdhury is British Bengali, and says that her identity is an integral part of her cosplaying. She also blogs about modest fashion with inventive, interesting outfits side by side with Tahell Miah, her husband. He has been featured on her YouTube videos, such as the Jelly Bean Challenge. They met at college, and Saima says “everything aligned” in regards to their relationship, and that she has learned a lot about love and support during her time with him.
Chowdhury also has a podcast with Fatimaspeaks called the Neighbourhood Trash Gang, where the two “take you on a magic carpet ride through their brain.” The idea came to her randomly, she tells Bricks Magazine, and that it ended up just working out. “I thought to myself, ‘how funny would it be if we started [a podcast]?’ so I suggested it to one of my best friends when we were filming a YouTube video and she said yes!”
But somehow, Chowdhury still finds time to balance all these projects with plenty of time for friends and family, in part by combining them.
Creative hijabi cosplays from Saima Chowdhury
Chowdhury uses what she has on hand to make her costumes. “I was so sad when I crushed up my first colorful palette,” she tells Bricks Magazine. “But I thought what’s the point in having all these palettes if I can’t enjoy them properly!”
“People often have a perception of what Muslim women are, especially when they look into the media and become shocked,” says Chowdhury. “Muslim women are normal women. Some of them have engineering hobbies, some of them do archery, some watch anime.”
Check out more of Chowdhury’s cosplays on her Instagram and Youtube.
